The new album has a title. A long one.
Speeches Delivered To Animals And Plants is 'based loosely on the concept of failure' and will be released to the world on August 30th via Juliana's own label, Ye Olde Records and distributed by Junketboy.
UPDATE June 22 - the album is now called There's Always Another Girl
Those of us who have funded the album via PledgeMusic should get it ahead of this with exclusive access to a download version 'when it is ready' and if we've pledged on the CD 'as soon as it is manufactured'. Update June 7 - Juliana hopes to have the album pledgy ready in July.
The tracklist (which is subject to change):
- Stray Kids
- Taxicab
- Vagabond
- Sex and Drugs
- Failure
- Someone Else's Problem
- Change The World
- Batteries
- Don't Wanna Dance
- There's Always Another Girl
- Candy Wrappers
- Thousands Of Guitars
- Wasting Time
UPDATE July 13 - Juliana has changed the order of the above and added a track.
From the press release:
Hatfield says, "I really think that PledgeMusic and similar sites are the future of music, especially for people like me who have devoted cultish fanbases but who have never sold a ton of records and don't really fit in anywhere at major labels. Working with this new model, you go straight to the fans, who become your patrons, in a very direct and vital way. They have a special kind of access to you in a way that makes them happy - they see the progress of the album-making in real time with the video and audio updates I post at the PledgeMusic site. And I have total ownership of the music at all stages, present and future. I love working like this."
Speeches... is the follow up to last year's Peace and Love, which Paste Magazine hailed for its "fearless honesty" while SPIN extolled its "affirmations turned narratives that are sharpened rather than softened by their harmonies."
Working at Q Division Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts, Hatfield produced and played all the six-string guitars and keyboards on the new album. Ed Valuaskas played bass and Pete Caldes played drums. The 13 songs feature Hatfield's distinctive but typically underrated guitar stylings-highly emotive but not overly slick, and resonating with a range of human emotions from joy to despondence to goofiness to resignation.
What's with the title? "I think that when people get to the presumed halfway point in their lives, they inevitably look back and assess what they have or have not accomplished. There is an acceptance of one's limitations, a scaling back of goals, a settling into the way things are," observes Hatfield. "I think I have always had a pretty measured perspective-I am always grateful for all the good opportunities I've had but at the same time I'm never really content. I always want to do more, to be better-a better singer, performer, writer, person, friend, sister, daughter, etc. I don't shy away from the dark stuff -without the darkness there would be no light."
Hatfield first came to prominence in her teens as a founding member of the Blake Babies. After four independent albums with the group, she signed to Atlantic as a solo artist and had a string of modern-rock hits (including "My Sister," "Spin The Bottle" and "Universal Heartbeat"). She left the label in 1998, signing to Zoe Records (a Rounder Records imprint) and releasing four well-regarded albums, including 2004's In Exile Deo, named as one of that year's 10 best albums by The New York Times' Jon Pareles. In 2005, Hatfield came full circle, returning to her independent roots and founding Ye Olde Records. Her autobiography, When I Grow Up, was published by Wiley & Sons in 2008.
"I've gotten to a place where I am really proud of the large body of work that I have produced, regardless of how my work is or is not received, or how many records I've sold," she reflects. "I know my weaknesses but I also know that I have gifts and I've made the most of them with this new album."
